兵士シュヴェイクの冒険／善良な兵士シュヴェイク — ヤロスラフ・ハシェク
W. Lunt You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : The story of Islam Author : Theodore R. W. Lunt Release date : November 1, 2022 [eBook #69276] Most recently updated: November 14, 2025 Language : English Original publication : United Kingdom: United Council for Missionary Education, 1909 Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69276 Credits : Al Haines *** START OF ' Islam was born in the desert. ' THE STORY OF ISLAM BY THEODORE R. W. LUNT GENERAL SECRETARY, NATIONAL LAYMEN'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT (FORMERLY EDUCATIONAL SECRETARY, CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY) THIRD EDITION (REVISED) LONDON UNITED COUNCIL FOR MISSIONARY EDUCATION CATHEDRAL HOUSE, 8 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 1909. First Edition. 1911. Second Edition. 1916. Third Edition ( Revised ). Dedicated to the Public Schoolboys of Great Britain, who have a Big Part yet to play in shaping the Future Story of Islam In the Same Series THE SECRET OF THE RAJ BY BASIL MATHEWS, M.A. Price 1/6, post free From all Missionary Societies AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION It has been strange indeed to revise this book in barracks, amid efforts to learn to fire big guns—possibly against the Turks. And yet this necessity which lies upon us Englishmen to-day only emphasizes afresh the importance of our trying to understand the real problem of Islam. When the war is over, Islam will remain. Whatever state of disorganization it may be in and whatever its centre, it will still tower up before us gaunt and shadowed as one of the most difficult problems of civilization and as the great reproach of the Christian Church. We can do nothing to help Moslems, or to solve their problem, unless we know something of their story and have tried to understand the power and fascination of their rugged simple creed. Those of us who are called to fight—for honourable necessity—have the lesser task though it be costly. The real opportunity will lie with those who come after—with those, in fact, who are at school to-day. Their task will be not to destroy but to build, to dream holy dreams of a great World Kingdom of Love and Gentleness and Truth and Purity and Honour, and to consecrate their lives to the One from Whom and through Whom alone these things can come. THEO. R. W. LUNT. R.F.A. MESS, BEDFORD BARRACKS, EDINBURGH, January 1916. CONTENTS CHAP. Author's Preface I. 'Youth and its Schooling' II. Early Manhood III. The Prophet of Arabia IV. Life in Mecca V. The Unsheathing of the Sword VI. The Sword of Islam VII. Islam's Success VIII. Islam's Failure IX. 'The Challenge of Islam' X. The World of Islam XI. Islam and the Church of Christ XII. Islam and the Christian Appendices Index LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Evening Prayer ... Frontispiece ' Islam was born in the desert. ' The Kaaba at Mecca ' Recognized as the religious centre of all Arabia. ' A Camel Merchant ' Mohammed's fame spread along every caravan route of Arabia. ' The Observance of Prayer ' Typical of Mohammedanism in every century and in every clime. ' The Extent of Islam, 800 A.D. (map) ' An example in missionary enthusiasm. ' Moslems in the Great Mosque, Delhi ' It is a problem which concerns us, ... we have a duty to them. ' A Challenge from West Africa ' Where Moslem mosque and pagan temple are side by side. ' Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer and Dr. Imad-ud-Din ' Strong men, missionary and convert. ' Moslem Boy-Faces (Tunis) ' What have we Christians that we can say to them? ' The Mohammedan World To-day ( map ) THE STORY OF ISLAM CHAPTER I 'YOUTH AND ITS SCHOOLING' 'The boy is father of the man.' 'Islam was born in the desert.' EDWIN ARNOLD. Mecca. Close to the focus of three great continents, where East meets West and North meets South, Asia almost touching both Africa and Europe, lies the great unknown country of Arabia, the 'Land of the Desert.' The long, low coast-line of its western shore is familiar enough to all who travel to the East. About seventy miles behind that coast lies a wild chain of desert mountains. Here, in a valley snuggling among massive peaks, is an Arab town, a kind of mountain fastness, lying in an amphitheatre of rugged hills. It marks the spot, so the Arab legend runs, where long years ago Hagar the bondwoman laid her son, parched and dying of a desert thirst, while she drew away out of reach of his cries, and 'lifted up her voice and wept.' Here, too, is the well from which she filled her bottle and gave the lad to drink, reverenced to-day by all good Arabs as the sacred well of Zemzem. Mohammed's Birth 570 A.D. In this town of Mecca there lived in the year 570 A.D. a young Arab widow mother. She had not been married long when her husband Abdallah joined a caravan on a long trading journey up to Syria. On his way back he sickened of some desert fever and died, and a son was born to her after the father's death. The child's grandfather was a person of considerable importance, the patriarchal head of the ruling clan, the Koreish. He took the boy in his arms and went to the sacred temple of Mecca, and gave thanks to God. The child was named Mohammed. Childhood. His mother was poor, but she was of noble family; and so, according to the custom of Arab aristocracy, the child was not nursed at home but entrusted to the care of a woman of one of the wild wandering tribes of the desert for his first five years. The boy's earliest recollections must have been of wild Bedouin life, in which he grew strong and robust in frame, trained in the pure speech and free manners of the desert. For little more than a year he returned to his mother and his home, but at the age of seven his mother died, and he was left an orphan. He was old enough to feel her loss very deeply, and also the desolation of his orphan state. The shadow overcast his life and